Don’t forget Ukraine

At the end of 2011 Julia Tymoshenko, former prime minister and leader of the Ukrainian Batkivshchyna Partyy, was transferred to a prison about 500 km outside the capital Kiev. This happened “despite the clear evidence of the grave state of her health and the fact that she was kept in a medical ward of the pre-trial detention center and cannot move without assistance,” explained a spokesperson for Batkivshchyna Party. Neither members of her family, nor her defense counselors were informed in advance about the transfer.
Both the EU and the U.S. have criticized the process of Yulia Tymoshenko as politically motivated.
An indication for this is that her husband, Oleksandr Tymoshenko in early January sought and was granted asylum in the Czech Republic. The reason for the exodus was, according to her daughter Eugenia Tymoshenko: “He did not think they could use him to put pressure on my mother, as they did in 2001 when our whole family was subjected to politically motivated oppression because of my mother’s opposition activities.”
Yulia Tymoshenko was sentenced in October 2011 to seven years in prison for the decisions taken during her time in power.